Tim Sullivan | A dark day for Baseball Hall of Fame

Writers hurl shutout

4:00 AM,
Jan. 10, 2013

Written by

Tim Sullivan

The Baseball Hall of Fame is a history museum built on a foundation of mythology. Its roots are traced to a story no serious historian believes - that Abner Doubleday invented the grand old game in 1839, in Elihu Phinney's cow pasture, in Cooperstown, N.Y.

The general was a formidable figure. Credited with firing the first shot in defense of Fort Sumter at the outset of the Civil War, Doubleday later distinguished himself as a commander at the Battle of Gettysburg. Subsequently stationed in San Francisco, he filed a patent for the cable car that continues to run there.